Food safety from a consumers´ point of view: food quality

Food safety is a topic that is currently very much and often discussed. This may be a debate among political representatives, representatives of the food industry, but also among consumers, ie. general public. The issue of food safety and quality is very important in view of the growing globalization of economy, whose mission is to encourage food businesses to improve the production process as a whole and competitiveness. As in every sector, the food market faces many problems arising from market opening, business environment diversity or non-compliance with legislative requirements. The effects of these market imperfections are ultimately borne by the consumer. It is, therefore, appropriate to ensure that consumers are adequately informed about the food they consume. Food production is carried out according to European and world standards. A Slovak customer purchases food imported from abroad. This fact can be caused by the pricing of individual foods but also by the lack of Slovak producers. Foreign competition liquidates the quality Slovak producers. The principle of customers should be to support the economy of the state and to buy domestic food. The submitted document deals with issues of food safety, control and quality of food. The aim of the work was to examine the attitudes of consumers to food safety based on the acquired knowledge and research results, to identify their interest in food safety. It also involved identifying global food safety issues and analyzing consumers' views on the problem under consideration and its impact on their purchasing behavior. Primary data was obtained from a survey that was performed on a sample of 478 respondents. Based on the survey, it was confirmed that 85% of respondents perceive the different quality of the food sold on the Slovak market. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents said they were paying attention to the quality of the groceries. More than half of respondents expressed satisfaction with hygienic sales conditions. Almost 80% think that high-quality food is commonly available. Statistical testing has confirmed the significantly lower quality of food produced abroad. Other assumptions were formulated for more detailed analysis and their relationships were verified by using the statistical methods (Friedman Test, Chi-Square Test of Independence, Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test)